CFL All-Star Game

"Shrine Game" redirects here. For the annual football game between teams of American college all-stars, see East-West Shrine Game.

The Canadian Football League played an all-star game regularly during the 1950s and 1970s and twice in the 1980s.

The first game in 1955 actually precedes the establishment of the Canadian Football Council and the CFL, and was known as the Shrine Game. It was held each year from 1955 to 1958 the week after the Grey Cup, as the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union All-Stars took on the Western Interprovincial Football Union.

After the 1956 contest, five players that played in the game (four from the Saskatchewan Roughriders and one from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers) were killed when Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashed in what was then the worst air disaster in Canadian history. After poor attendances in the next two Shrine Games -- which were not helped by the fact that they outdoor football games played in Canada in December -- the idea of an All-Star game was dropped.

The CFL All-Star Game returned in 1970, now played as a pre-season contest in late June and early July, with the league all-stars playing the previous season's Grey Cup champion. After no game was held in 1975, the contest returned for three more years (1976–78), with East again meeting West. These games were played before the pre-season (similar to the NFL's Pro Football Hall of Fame Game), in late May and early June; again, poor attendance led to the game's cancellation.

Two more CFL All-Star Games were played in the 1980s: a post-season contest in December 1983 (held indoors in Vancouver), pitting East and West; and a June 1988 game between the CFL All-Stars and the hometown Edmonton Eskimos. Even though the 1988 contest drew a CFL All Star-record 27,573 fans,[1] no game has been held since then.

List of games

As of 2013 there have been 14 CFL All-Star Games. Of the eight games that have featured teams from the East versus West (or IRFU versus WIFU), the West leads the series 5-2-1. The remaining six games featured a CFL All-Star team versus the defending Grey Cup champion. The league team won four of these games, with the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Rough Riders each winning once.

Season Date Venue City Visitor Score Home Attendance Ref
1955 December 3, 1955 Varsity Stadium Toronto, ON WIFU All-Stars 6-6 (tie) IRFU All-Stars 15,088 [2]
1956 December 8, 1956 Empire Stadium Vancouver, BC IRFU All-Stars 0-35 WIFU All-Stars 13,546 [3]
1957 December 7, 1957 Molson Stadium Montreal, QC WIFU All-Stars 2-20 IRFU All-Stars 5,000 [4]
1958 December 6, 1958 Civic Stadium Hamilton, ON WIFU All-Stars 9-3 IRFU All-Stars 7,000 [5]
1970 July 2, 1970 Lansdowne Park Ottawa, ON CFL All-Stars 35-14 Ottawa Rough Riders 23,094 [6]
1971 June 29, 1971 Autostade Montreal, QC CFL All-Stars 30-13 Montreal Alouettes 9,000 [7]
1972 June 28, 1972 McMahon Stadium Calgary, AB CFL All-Stars 22-23 Calgary Stampeders 23,616 [8]
1973 June 27, 1973 Ivor Wynne Stadium Hamilton, ON CFL All-Stars 22-11 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 24,765 [9]
1974 June 26, 1974 Lansdowne Park Ottawa, ON CFL All-Stars 22-25 Ottawa Rough Riders 15,102 [10]
1976 May 29, 1976 Clarke Stadium Edmonton, AB East All-Stars 16-27 West All-Stars 21,762 [11]
1977 June 4, 1977 Exhibition Stadium Toronto, ON West All-Stars 19-20 East All-Stars 7,500 [12]
1978 June 3, 1978 McMahon Stadium Calgary, AB East All-Stars 12-24 West All-Stars 21,000 [13]
1983 December 3, 1983 BC Place Stadium Vancouver, BC East All-Stars 15-25 West All-Stars 14,000 [14]
1988 June 23, 1988 Commonwealth Stadium Edmonton, AB CFL All-Stars 15-4 Edmonton Eskimos 27,573 [15]

References

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